Street takes swipe at Morrissey

Music producer STEPHEN STREET has taken aim at MORRISSEY after the singer dropped a track from the re-release of the album they co-wrote.

Published 24th February 2012

The studio veteran and Morrissey teamed up to write and record songs just months after The Smiths split in 1987, and their efforts were released as the rocker's debut solo album Viva Hate the following year (88).

Street has now remastered the entire album for a re-issue next month (Mar12) - but he was stunned to discover Morrissey has dropped one of the numbers in favour of an unreleased song, and also ordered engineers to remove a "big chunk" of the record's signature track.

The producer admits he confronted Morrissey and tried to change his mind - but the Suedehead hitmaker was adamant he's made the right decision to alter the record's original tracklisting.

Street tells Louderthanwar.com, "As far as I'm concerned, the album should not have been changed. I kind of argued this with Morrissey, as much as I can, and made it clear that it was a mistake. I really like The Ordinary Boys and think it's a great song... to take off The Ordinary Boys... and put a demo in its place I personally think is wrong.

"I think the album should have been left as it was. There's also a big chunk of Late Night, Maudlin Street that's been taken off, and I'm really not happy about that, but what can I do - it's Morrissey's album and I'm the producer... The fade-out section of Late Night, Maudlin Street was there for a reason and to take it out I think is personally a bit wrong."